RP eyes ‘people-centered’ Asean integration

With the Philippines chairing the ASEAN Standing Committee, President Arroyo is poised to lead the way toward the region’s economic integration fully centered on people and their well-being, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

Explaining this people-centered approach, DFA Assistant Secretary Luis Cruz said the acceleration of ASEAN integration into a regional economic power from its 2020 deadline to an earlier target of 2015 should require similar acceleration in its socio-cultural goals to serve the best interests of all the peoples involved.

Cruz, also the Philippine director-general to the ASEAN, cited the 11th ASEAN Summit’s theme "One Caring and Sharing Community" as indicative of this people-centered pursuit and approach espoused by Mrs. Arroyo as basis for a meaningful regional integration.

Part of this socio-cultural thrust is bridging the development gaps among ASEAN countries through community and private sector participation, capacity building, technology sharing, health, education and exchange of information on best practices in various fields of human concern.

Cruz said these community-building activities could be further accelerated by the adoption of a charter that would turn the ASEAN into a rules-based organization.

A blueprint for the charter is one of the proposed document outcomes being prepared for the 12th ASEAN Summit slated in Cebu on Jan. 10-15.

The goal is to ensure that the attainment of an "ASEAN Community of Caring Societies" will effectively benefit all its peoples individually and collectively by alleviating and ultimately eliminating poverty, promoting health, improving and making education accessible, achieving political security, keeping the environment and natural resources sustainable, maintaining peace, generating economic opportunities for all, and raising the quality of life in the region.

The ASEAN Community of Caring Societies is founded on three pillars — political-security community, economic community, and socio-cultural community.

It is the socio-cultural pillar, authored by the Philippines, that generally but primarily revolves around the welfare of the citizens of ASEAN — from their human rights and gender needs to their other requirements as psychosocial beings.

Director Ferchito Avelino of the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) said AIDS would be the only health issue to be tackled during the summit.

A second ASEAN declaration on HIV and AIDS is expected to be adopted during the summit’s special session as part of the Philippine initiatives.

On the other hand, issues on human rights that pertain to political matters may be discussed but only informally during the leaders’ retreat because any formal discussion of the matter would "go against the grain" of ASEAN’s policy on non-intervention in internal affairs, Cruz said.

Other people-centered issues that would be tackled include the protection of migrant workers, freer movement of nursing professionals, acceleration of community building target to 2015, private sector and community participation in policy-making, energy security, and environmental sustainability, among others, according to Secretary Conrado Limcaoco, director general of the Philippine Information Agency.